Looms for weaving



Nov. 18, 1958 w, sHlMWELL 2,860,667

LOOMS FOR WEAVING Filed July 20, 1956 flwaninr -H5hbmweLL United States Patent 2,860,557 Patented Nov. 18, 1958 Weaving Research & Textile Commission Agents Limited, Jun-by, Isle of Man, a British company Application July 20, 1956, Serial No. 599,208 Claims priority, application Great Britain August 3, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 139-123) This invention relates to looms of the type in which the weft is inserted into the warp shed by a reciprocatory weft inserting spear or the like (hereinafter called spear) and in which the supply of weft yarn is obtained from a stationary package located at the side of the loom. It will be appreciated that with such a type of loom, due to the fact that in one direction of its traverse, a spear is moving generally towards the package from which it is drawing its supply and in the other direction of traverse it is moving generally away from such package, difficulties occur due to the fact that in the latter direction of traverse, the spear is drawing yarn off from the package at about twice the speed of the spear if a length of weft is laid in the warp shed, Whilst in the former direction of traverse, the spear is not drawing off any yarn from the yarn package. It will be appreciated that this results in what can be termed pluckings and excessive tension in the yarn on the out traverses of the spears, with liability to yarn breakages and other troubles. In the case where the weft is severed at a selvedge andthe length in the spear withdrawn from the warp shed, take-up means have had to be provided for taking up slack in the weft. In the other direction of traverse of the spear when a severed end is being re-inserted into the warp shed, it has been found necessary to pay out this slack as the spear travels back into the shed to lay weft on its return traverse. These problems will be readily appreciated from a consideration of my prior specification No. 447,282.

The object of the present invention is to provide improved means for dealing with the length of weft between each weft package and its weft spear such means obviating difliculties and complications found in practice with the usual weft supply and take-up devices.

In accordance with the present invention, yarn guiding means are provided between a weft package and its spear which maintain a substantially constant length of yarn between package and spear in all positions of the latter.

More particularly the invention comprises a linkage system of elbow form pivotally attached at one end to the rear of its cooperating reciprocatory spear and at its other end to a fixed part, with the weft yarn passing through guides at the said pivotal points and where the links of the linkage system are pivotally interconnected at the elbow joint, so that a substantially constant distance is maintained between the weft supply package and the spear through which the weft passes into the warp threads of the cloth being woven.

Referring to the accompanying sheet of explanatory drawings:

Figure 1 shows a portion of a loom with a weft inserting spear passing through the warp shed, the means for supplying the weft to the delivery end of the spear from stationary yarn packages being constructed and arranged in one convenient form in accordance with this invention.

Figures 2 and 3 show the spear and linkage system in an intermediate position and in the extreme out position respectively.

Figure 4 is a detail view of the guide eyes at a pivotal point of the linkage system.

The loom shown is generally as shown in my prior specification No. 447,282, now Patent No. 2,816,576, and each weft inserting spear as a transfers two weft threads from two stationary weft packages b and 0 into two sets of warp threads arranged one above the other to produce two fabrics simultaneously.

Two weft inserting spears insert weft into the warp sheds from opposite sides of the loom in the usual manner.

Pivotally connected at d to the rear end of the spear a is a link e which is itself pivotally connected at f to a further link g. The latter is pivotally connected at h to a fixed angle or bar i. There are yarn guide eyes j as shown in Figure 4 at each pivotal point h, f and d so that the weft follows the configuration of the elbow formed by the links a and g as the spear moves into and out of the warp shed. In Figure 1, the full line position of the links e and g corresponds to the spear being nearly fully across the warp shed. The dotted line position k of the links is that shown in Figure 2 when the spear is approaching a position out of the shed and the dotted line position k of the links is that shown in Figure 3 where the spear is completely out of the warp shed. In all these positions, the length of weft thread between each package b or c and the delivery or left hand end of the spear a is substantially constant.

It will be appreciated that whilst there has been described by way of example a loo-m with two duplex weft inserting spears, the invention can be applied to looms with a spear, or spears, inserting a single weft into one warp shed.

With the improvement, yarn take-up devices with their mechanical complications and the friction they exert on the yarn are unnecessar because the yarn is only drawn off its package when necessary and its speed of withdrawal does not exceed or exceed materially the speed of the spear through the warp shed.

What I claim is:

l. A loom of the type in which weft is inserted into the warp shed by a reciprocatory weft inserting spear and in which the supply of weft yarn is obtained from a stationary package located at the side of the loom, having a pivotally interconnected linkage system of elbow form pivotally attached at one end to the rear end of the spear and at the other end to a fixed part of the loom near the yarn package, with guides at the pivotal points through which the weft yarn passes.

2. A loom as claimed in claim 1, in which the linkage system consists of two links pivoted to one another with the free end of one link pivoted to a fixed. support adjacentto the yarn package and the free end of the other link pivoted to the rear end of the spear, and yarn guides at the pivotal points of the links so that the yarn follows the path of the links between yarn package and spear.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,149,428 Felton Mar. 7, 1939 2,258,193 Payne Oct. 7, 1941 2,563,579 Chapman Aug. 7, 1951 

